Since AMTRAK dropped its reference to “China” this past July when referring to Taiwan on its billing page pressed by FAPA, FAPA has received overwhelming support from Taiwan and from Taiwanese Americans for FAPA’s name rectification campaign. In its latest endeavor in this field FAPA urged the United States Postal Services (USPS) to drop the China reference on its website where the USPS referred to Taiwan as a province of China.

In a letter from USPS dated May 9, the USPS stated that it agreed to make the correction, drop the China reference, and apologized to FAPA for this error.

In its earlier letter to the CEO of the USPS in April, FAPA urged the USPS, a corporation created by the United States Congress, to adhere to the State Department guidelines. In a 1996 State Department unclassified memorandum providing guidelines on U.S. relations with Taiwan, the State Department states that, since the United States has no diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, U.S. officials need to refer to Taiwan simply as “Taiwan.”

James P. Wade, Vice President of International Business of the USPS, responded in the letter that “..insofar as this incident appears to be an isolated exception in the USPS’s compliance with this U.S. State Department guideline. As a rule, the listing in the USPS’ publications and in the USPS’ online applications all make reference to “Taiwan.” He continued, “I am pleased to announce that we have already contacted the USPS website programmers to make the change you request….I apologize for any anxiety this might have caused your constituency.”

FAPA President C.T. Lee said, “We applaud this immediate response from the USPS. Unfortunately and unbelievably, the China reference, when referring to Taiwan, is rampant in the international community. It takes time and persistence to point out to the international community the factual reality that Taiwan is not a province of China. And FAPA is determined and prepared to do just that!”

美國郵政總局回應FAPA要求，為台灣正名

由於FAPA於去年成功促請AMTRAK改正其網站，不再加註台灣為中國一省後，獲得許多來自台灣民眾以及台美人的廣大迴響。FAPA於月前再次接受FAPA會員請託，呼籲美國郵政總局(USPS, United States Postal Services)能夠更正網站，不要在台灣之後加註中國一省等不正確字樣。據FAPA瞭解，郵政總局是在其網站裡的「更新住址」部份，誤將台灣列為中國一省。